Michael Gerard Cooper, a native of Richmond County, was arrested in Halifax on Jan. 28, a week following his release from a New Brunswick prison after serving a seven-year sentence for impaired driving causing death.

Cooper’s release from prison was based on several conditions, including a two-year ban from entering any place where alcohol is sold or consumed as the primary source of business, as well as a two-year order to abstain from buying, possessing or drinking alcohol.

A mental health assessment report was submitted Thursday to provincial court from the East Coast Forensic Hospital saying Cooper is fit to stand trial and not exempt from criminal responsibility due to mental illness.

But the report also says Cooper has significant brain damage as a result of a traumatic brain injury, making it difficult for him to adapt to independent community living. It says he has multiple mental health needs and therefore recommends his case be transferred to Nova Scotia’s mental health court.

The assessment says Cooper’s particular form of brain damage is often accompanied by socially inappropriate behaviour and comments. The report, which includes quotes from Cooper taken from interviews he gave during his mental health assessment, says that when he entered a Nova Scotia Liquor store, he said, “I would like to buy something but I am not allowed.”

The report says Cooper was well aware of the conditions on him and accepts the consequences of his actions.

“I was in the wrong,” he is quoted as saying. “I am not allowed to be in liquor stores. I knew that. That is why I left.”

The Crown and defence said they agreed with the report’s findings but Judge Barbara Beach said she needed time to consider its recommendation to transfer the case to mental health court. The hearing will resume later Thursday.

Cooper’s case attracted national attention earlier this year after the parents of a Sydney teenager killed in a collision with Cooper’s vehicle asked Nova Scotia authorities to provide his name and photo to liquor stores, bars and other licensed establishments upon his release.

On Jan. 21, Halifax police released Cooper’s photo and took the unusual step of warning all Nova Scotians about him. Nova Scotia Liquor Corp., the Crown agency that owns the province’s liquor stores, then instructed all of its employees to call 911 if Cooper was spotted in any of its outlets.

In 2007, Cooper was convicted of two counts of impaired driving causing death following a May 2004 crash near St. Peter's in Cape Breton that killed Angela Smits, 19, and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Michael MacLean.

After his conviction, the Parole Board of Canada said he told them he would likely continue to drink and drive, which prompted the board to deny him an early release.